Duchene, 22, leads all Avalanche scorers this season with 17 points in 17 games, but has gone scoreless in his last three games while posting a minus-4 rating.

He was also held to just 15:28 in ice time during Saturday’s 4-1 loss to the Kings, way down from the 21:22 he’s averaging per game this season.

Duchene didn’t participate in Tuesday’s morning skate and, according to Dater, has not been given a timetable to return by the club.

The Avalanche are already without the services of Steve Downie, who was lost for the year after tearing his ACL in January, as well as defensemen Erik Johnson (head) and Ryan Wilson (leg), both of whom are on injured reserve.

The only solace for Avs fans in this is that the teams performance can largely be blamed on all the injuries…personally I considered their season done as soon as Landeskog went down.

I hope they stay towards the bottom because it will mean a higher draft pick then the team honestly deserves to have, which in theory means more talent gets in the system.

No reason to be too bummed out – who ever wins the Stanley Cup this year will go down as ‘that team that won because there was only half a season’

govtminion - Feb 26, 2013 at 5:45 PM

What use is a high draft pick if ownership will just refuse to sign him to a decent contract and force him out the door in a couple of years anyway? All that does is make the Avalanche a farm team for the rest of the NHL. Until the problem in the owners’ box is fixed, everything on down will continue to suffer. (And as an Avs fan, I hate typing that.)

HAHAHA As if the Avs offer to O’Reilly wasn’t fair – he was making 900k a year and they offered him 3.5 million on a short term deal to potentially make MORE after that (or 3.4 on a long term deal – the club takes all the risk in that – he can’t say he wasn’t wanted). Writing a blank check to O’Reilly doesn’t make them a better team long term when they can’t afford to sign anyone else because they decided to over pay for one player. The argument that they have tons of money under the cap is irrelevant; they cap is going down next year and they still aren’t close to being a contender – bringing in short term free agents rarely results in significant results and is only useful when lacking one or two pieces to make a legitimate run.

Funny thing is, O’Reilly wasn’t even that high of a pick – he was a steal where he got drafted but one good year statistically doesn’t warrant any sense of entitlement. Look at the G/A/P columns on the stat sheet – that’s why people get paid; Datsyuk is a great two way player too but the Red Wings aren’t going to open the check book to him if he doesn’t put up the points to deserve it.

govtminion - Feb 27, 2013 at 12:52 AM

Fair enough, but shouldn’t there be negotiation? Putting out a deal and saying ‘take it or leave it’ isn’t the best way to show a guy you want him to play there- and beyond that, it’s a fine way to show other players around the NHL that they don’t want to deal with Colorado either. After all, if they’ll treat their own star players like that, why even think about them if you’re a free agent?

There’s a lot more to lose here for the Avs than a decent forward- and they’re not thinking big picture the way they should be.

I don’t disagree that there should be negotiation – but if the Avs put up two offers to O’Reilly and his agents (which were, in my opinion, more than fair), each of his choosing and he comes back and holds firms on the money he wants without any indication of what the preferred term of the deal should be, is it really the Avs holding things up? At the offered deals he would have received the 2nd best “RFA holdout” deal behind Jamie Benn who potted 20+ goals each year of his entry level deal, yet O’Reilly thinks he’s in that ballpark. Personally I don’t know how you approach that situation – I would have offered him 4m on a 2 year deal but I doubt he would take that either.

Based on what has come out it’s not so much as money as it is 1) O’Reilly wanted out of Colorado 2) Even though he wanted out, he would take the ridiculous amount of money he was asking for in order to stay (because he wasn’t going to get it anywhere else) or 3) His feelings got hurt because he wasn’t picked as Captain (when he hadn’t even signed a deal) or 4) Combination of all of the above.

He’s a great player but I think he’s being represented by fools who have pumped his tires a little too much or he’s holding some tremendous bitterness toward the Avs and is essentially throwing a temper tantrum like a 5 year old who isn’t getting what they want. Whatever the case, hopefully there’s an end in sight, one way or the other.

tfaltin - Feb 26, 2013 at 3:46 PM

Good thing they locked up Ryan O’Reilly to slot in for the time being…..Oh, darn, forgot we were talking about the Avalanche there for a second.